A Horseman for the Emperor Galloping into danger-on and off the battlefield Jean Baptiste Gazzola's memoir of his life in Napoleon's cavalry regiments is a remarkable and exhilarating one. He tells his story vividly-almost certainly with advantages-for it is one of passionate love affairs, attempted murder, duels, flight from retribution, hard campaigning and violent battles. This Italian centaur joined the Revolutionary French Army in the early days of Napoleon's career, for engagements in his home country before departing for Egypt-and thereafter many of the pivotal battles of the age culminating in the retreat from Moscow, where, left behind, wounded and frost-bitten, he ends his ...